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Earlier this week, Australian defence chief Marshal Angus Houston said he hoped Australia's troops could hand over the responsibility for ensuring the security of Afghan forces in "three to four years".|Houston also acknowledged that pulling out too early would bring on civil war in the country and almost certainly deliver the war-torn nation to the Taleban and result in a surge in global terrorism.

If that were the case, this landlocked country would once again return to the situation it was in before 200,1 when terrorists and extremist roamed freely.

Let's not forget that many global terrorists, including those operating in Southeast Asia, were trained in an Afghanistan that was neglected by the world after Soviet troops pulled out two decades ago.

The question is, can the world afford to neglect Afghanistan again and risk seeing the country return to its previous status of being an unrestrained training ground for terrorists with global outreach?

Australia has about 1,550 troops stationed in the country. Like other countries, the Australians are there to train the Afghan National Army so they can take over the responsibility of providing security for their own countrymen.

While the statement about the desire to pull out of Afghanistan in "three to four years" was the first time a major partner in the US-led campaign in Afghanistan had given an estimate of a deadline, Houston also acknowledged that, like Iraq, "there is more to it than just drawing a line and saying this battalion will be ready at this time".

The Western world, namely the United States, turned its back on the Afghans after the Soviets pulled out and allowed the country to become a base for the global jihadists. However, US President Barack Obama can't afford to make the same mistakes as his predecessors.

Today, the US-led campaign is confronted with a daunting task, while the scene and statistics remind us that victory is still a long way away. The rise in civilian casualties on both Afghan and Pakistani borders continue to alienate the very people the troops are there to protect, while in the United States, the public are considering their own personal interests amid the economic downturn. The sight of American troops coming home in body bags doesn't help either.

US Defence Secretary Robert M Gates told the Los Angeles Times in a recent interview that he figured he had about a year to show progress against the Taleban or risk losing public support.

It has been seven years since the Taleban were ousted from Kabul. At first, the world cheered triumphantly as the militants fled the Afghan capital. However, it wasn't long before the world realised that entering an enemy's capital is not the same thing as victory.

Today, seven years later, the influence of the Taleban has spread through the southern part of the country and the Northwest Frontier province of Pakistan, as well as other regions. All this while the international community's clout is fast weakening.

More than the Australians, the United States will be hard pressed to demonstrate that the Taleban and their al-Qaeda allies have been beaten back instead of simply regrouping in remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Bernard Falls, a counter-insurgency theorist, wrote in 1965 that a government that was losing to an insurgency was not being outfought, it was being out-governed.

In the case of Afghanistan, the US-led coalition and the Afghan government are being both outfought and out-governed. In other words, they are going to have to make good on their promises of delivering goods and services to the ordinary Afghans or risk losing support at the local level, something that the Taleban are waiting to exploit.

Indeed, too much effort has been placed on chasing the bad guys into the remote hills and mountains, and not enough effort has been put into improved governance for major clusters of the population.

It's not too late, however, to make peace with local communities and bring them over to the side of the state. However, unless good services and security can be guaranteed, one can forget about winning any hearts and minds, much less reconciling with Taleban militants.